On Oct. 1, an unbelievable tragedy happened at Umpqua Community College in Oregon. The gunman, who was a student at the college, killed nine people and wounded 10 others and then took his own life.

A week later on October 7, a threatening graffiti, “Kill all by 10/8/15 this BU OPP,” was found on a bathroom in the Powell Building at Eastern Kentucky University. That morning, University Officials canceled all classes on Thursday Oct. 7 till Friday Oct. 9 for the students’ safety.

The Eastern Kentucky University officials guessed it might be from a slacker student just trying to get out of midterms. However, since a similar incident happened earlier in February of this year at EKU — the message “Bringing gun to here 2-11-15 dead students” was found in a bathroom stall — the university has put a bounty on the identification of the perpetrator.

Fortunately no incident occurred, but since recent occurrences this graffiti had to be taken seriously.

As I have seen, Diablo Valley College isn’t prepared to handle this modern phenomenon; yet not many colleges are.  

DVC should install emergency bells in classrooms or in common areas, and then police can be right there if any crime happens. Thus, it would be helpful to lower probability of crime.

Once a mass shooting happens, most people will be in a panic unless they’ve been trained in combat. Thus, DVC should open a workshop about how to deal with situations of this. Even at the DVC Brown Bag Workshop there are no references to what to do for emergency responses in shootings.

Since the Virginia Tech massacre occurred, many colleges across the U.S. provided “active shooter” training for incoming students. Also institutions, such as Colorado School of Mines and Arkansas State University, already train students on how to respond by suggesting presentations on defense, such as running, hiding, or fighting back.

DVC needs to come up with solutions as to how to deal with this possible impending event. It could be too late if we become passive in handling this issue. Every life matters. Let’s not lose a single life on this campus because of an active shooter.

Fortunately, Governor Jerry Brown recently signed legislation banning concealed weapons at all college campuses in California: The new California law went against the grain of what lawmakers in many other states have sought to do.